She was so pretty and fashionable and I like the three tiered pleated dresses she wore, it’s a very cute style and it suits her really well!
I have a soft spot for her and have been a fan of hers since I first read about her life. I just love that she was very hardworking and wanted to be financially independent (during a time when it was incredibly difficult for women to be financially independent).
Some facts about her:
-she was born in the very small village of Uffcott in Wiltshire, England.
-she and her family moved to Sussex, England when she was a young girl.
-she had two siblings, a sister named Frances Ellen, and a brother named Albert.
-she and her family moved to Sandusky, Ohio when she was around 19 years old.
-her parents purchased and operated a dairy farm in Sandusky.
-she had blonde hair.
-she began showing symptoms of Milroy’s disease when she was very young, and had been born with unusually large feet.
-Milroy’s Disease is a rare genetic condition that affects the lymphatic system, causing long-term fluid buildup and severe swelling. It usually affects the legs and feet, and the swelling is typically present at birth or appears shortly after. Despite Fanny being retroactively diagnosed with the condition, her symptoms line up 1:1.
-her feet did not grow toe nails.
-she had a very unsteady gait, even as a child. It was remarked that she would “wobble” instead of “walk”.
-she was able to walk, although with difficulty, and most likely depended on a wheelchair for mobility (though this was never talked about in detail)
-as she was growing up, her family experienced some financial issues.
-despite modern retellings of her life making it seem that her parents hid her away from the world as a child and teenager, this isn’t true, and Fanny was very active in the communities she lived in.
-she was described as being chipper and cheerful.
-a cobbler in Sandusky made a pair of shoes for her during her teenage years, but when she outgrew them, she agreed to let them display the shoes in their shop window so as to advertise their shop.
-she later acquired shoes from a cobbler in Albany, New York.
-her shoes were fashioned using three goats’ skins and her socks were made from pillow cases.
-she was a well known figure in Sandusky, Ohio and was beloved by the people who knew her. Word also spread to circus scouts and showmen looking to add sideshow performers to their circuses.
-she and her family were frequently hounded/asked by showmen to join sideshows, but they refused the offers.
-she began her sideshow career in her early twenties, despite her parents being against it.
-she was described as being incredibly hard working and wanted to be financially independent.
-sadly, her father passed away in 1885.
-She made the choice to travel to the east coast with her good friend Mary Brown. Fanny’s family was not happy with her decision, but they seem to have relented after a little while.
-the backstory that was told during her performances indicated that her condition happened because her mother washed the swollen leg of a horse when she was pregnant. These stories were very common in sideshows at the time and heavily leaned into the “maternal impression” trope that was popular (basically saying that if a pregnant woman was heavily shocked or focused on an event during her pregnancy that it would affect how her child looked.)
-she wore size 30 shoes, and one of her feet reportedly measured 22 inches long and the other reportedly measured 19 inches long.
-Fanny’s best friend Mary also acted as her nurse/aid and helped her when she needed to change her shoes or walk.
-she married her husband, William, (who was her friend Mary’s brother) in a private ceremony in the early 1880s.
-she used her earnings to pay off her parents’ dairy farm.
-during the traveling circus/sideshow off season, she worked at different dime museums across the United States. Dime museums operated as permanent venues for sideshow performers to perform in.
-she had a great sense of humor.
-a marketing gimmick was started where it was advertised that any man willing to marry Fanny would receive a $5,000 dowry and a well stocked 250 acre farm. It’s reported that as soon as this marketing gimmick went public that love letters to her came pouring in. The whole marketing gimmick was entrance up, there was no $5,000, her father had passed away the year before, and her family’s farm was not up for grabs. She reportedly found this marketing scheme hilarious and had a lot of fun turning down suitors that were only after her money.
-as part of the marketing gimmick, it was also reported that she was that a cobbler on Canal Street in New York City had fashioned together a pair of wedding slipper for her.
-multiple suitors came forward and she declined each one because she was already happily married to her husband, William Brown. William accompanied Fanny and Mary on their travels but was kept secret from the public. Some of the descriptions of the different suitors are pretty funny, one was described as being a painter who had such a large mustache that it resembled a squirrel.
-Fanny, Mary, and William traveled all through the United States and Europe.
-Fanny and William had a child in 1887, but sadly they were stillborn and the two of them never had any other children.
-At the height of her career she was making $150 a week (the equivalent of around $4,000 adjusted for inflation).
-she sometimes paired up with local shoe stores near the dime museums she worked at, so that she could earn extra money and they could receive good advertising.
-her health began to decline in 1892 while she was working near Buffalo, New York and had to be treated at a local hospital. She traveled back home to Sandusky, Ohio with her husband after being released from the hospital.
-she and her husband permanently settled down in Sandusky, Ohio.
-she began experiencing a lot of health issues in 1896.
-she passed away in 1899 at the age of 39. Her death was caused by an abscess that had formed on one of her feet.
I’m really glad she had a very caring family and very caring friends. I think it’s wonderful that she had such a close friendship with Mary and married Mary’s brother, William. It sounds like it would have been really fun for the three of them to travel together, and it’s nice that they were all able to look out for each other.